Highlight

Share this

It's not often that an exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow can be recommended for schools, but Stage Fright, running until May 24, is a fun and thought-provoking show, suitable for more mature primary classes as well as secondary schools, colleges and teachers.

Not so much an exhibition as a series of connected interactive stage sets, all related to performance and the theatre, Stage Fright begins outside the entrance to the CCA with a sign that states: "Stage Door". Inside, visitors aren't sure if they've accidentally wandered into the backstage area of a theatre. But they haven't and you're free to scrutinise the dressing room of a group of actors who have left the table littered with make up, celebrity magazines, snacks, scripts and bunches of flowers; the mirror stuck with "Good Luck" cards that can be opened and read.

Don't be put off by the "Performance in Progress" sign - you are part of the "performance" and should proceed through the CCA cafe to the rest of the exhibition. This includes a spotlit cage with a live actor in it, performing one of a series of 37 forty-second dialogues which the actor repeats time after time, adding to it any mistakes that he or she happens to make (there are eight actors on a rota).

Next door is a chair and desk, set with an empty wine bottle and glass and a laptop, flanked by two screens, one showing a playwright writing, the other an actor speaking the words the playwright is writing, both seated at a desk... You get the picture. You can also change the words of the play that are on the laptop.

Open Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm

www.cca-glasgow.com

T 0141 352 4900.

Subscribe

If you are already a TES/ TESS subscriber please log in with your username or email address to get full access to our back issues, CPD library and membership plus page.